Constraints to biotechnology introduction for poverty alleviation.

Poverty in developing countries is usually linked to low agricultural productivity. Inadequate quantity and quality of food impacts human development potential, physically and mentally. Reduced immunity to disease due to poor nutrition increases the burden and kills. Current technologies (fertiliser, improved seed, irrigation, pesticides) correctly applied can sustainably and safely increase crop yields. Purchase cost and infrastructural issues (lack of roads, credit, market access and market-affecting-trade-distortions), however, severely limit small scale farmers’ ability to adopt these life sustaining and life saving technologies. Plant Biotechnology has great potential to improve the situation. Delivery of the technology in the seed largely overcomes the logistical problems of distribution involved with packaged products: farmers can pass seed to each other. Once the initial research is completed the ‘cost of goods’ (that is of a biotechnologically delivered trait delivered in a seed) is zero. Total time to market is comparable between biotechnology products and conventionally bred seed. For some traits conventional breeding is not an option: the only way to introduce such a trait is by genetic engineering. Even for traits that can be improved by traditional breeding, genetic engineering may facilitate and speed up the process. Intellectual property issues are usually not a constraint in developing countries and in pro-poor agriculture. It is notable that agricultural biotechnology uptake for commercially introduced traits has been extremely rapid, including in developing countries. However, for public good products from the public sector, despite much research in developing countries, this potential has not materialised. The politicisation of the regulatory process is an extremely significant impediment to use of biotechnology by public institutions for public goods. Costs, time and complexity of product introduction are severely and negatively affected (without such political impediment the technology is very appropriate for adoption by developing country scientists and farmers: it does not require intensive capitalisation). The